HCM City (VNA) – With various tourism products like shopping, cuisine and river cruisetours, Ho Chi Minh City attracted nearly 4.4 million foreign visitors in thefirst seven months of this year.

To utilise thecity’s potential in waterway tours, the municipal Tourism Department has partneredwith the Department of Transport to run the local waterways.

Apart from the 11 completedriver ports, the city is calling for investment in 11 others to meet traveldemand in districts 2 and 4, and Binh Thanh, Cu Chi and Can Gio districts.

The Mui Den Do wharfin district 7 and the Nha Rong-Khanh Hoi wharf in district 4 also have favourableconditions for maritime tourism.

In 2018, thecity’s Tourism Department plans to complete a tourism development strategy whichidentifies key tourism products and markets to better serve the demands of bothdomestic and foreign visitors.

The southernmetropolis is expected to receive 7.5 million international visitors this year.

In 2017, the citywelcomed more than 6.3 million international arrivals, 1 million more than theprevious year, and nearly 25 million domestic tourists, up 14.6 percentyear-on-year.-VNA